Costs for a parking space that the employee bears himself do not reduce the non-cash benefit that accrues to him from the free use of a car for private journeys.
Practical example:
The plaintiff also provides its employees with company cars for private use. In accordance with the company's „company car policy“, it does not cover the employees' costs for renting garage and parking spaces. However, as there are only a small number of public parking spaces available in the vicinity of the plaintiff's offices, it offers its employees (regardless of whether they use a company car or a private vehicle) the option of renting a parking space near their place of work for a monthly fee of € 30.
The plaintiff determined the non-cash benefit from the use of the company car by applying the 1% rule and the 0.03% rule for journeys between home and the first place of work. If employees rented a parking space from her, she took the employees' monthly rental payments into account by reducing the non-cash benefit accordingly. The tax office was of the opinion that the value of the non-cash benefit from the transfer of use may not be reduced by the parking space rent, as these expenses are not part of the total costs of the vehicle. The tax office therefore issued an additional assessment notice for wage tax and other wage tax amounts.
The BFH has ruled that the parking space costs borne by employees were wrongly taken into account in the assessment of the non-cash benefit from the use of company cars. The provision of a parking space or garage free of charge is treated as a benefit in kind. more independent Benefit in addition to the benefit for the use of a company car for private journeys.
Expenses for the use of the vehicle include not only services that are dependent on the mileage, such as expenses for fuel and lubricants, but also regularly recurring fixed costs. Costs which, such as ferry, toll or vignette costs for private journeys, depend exclusively on the employee's decision to use the vehicle to reach a specific private destination are not included. Instead, the assumption of such costs by the employer constitutes an independent non-cash benefit.
The same applies with regard to Parking space and garage costs. This is because the provision of a parking space or garage free of charge also constitutes an independent benefit, provided that the provision is not made for the employer's own business interests, which is not calculated according to the 1% rule or the logbook method, but as a independent advantage is to be assessed.
Conclusion: If the employee bears the costs for a parking space or garage, this can therefore only lead to a reduction in the benefit that was granted to him through the provision of the parking space or garage. A reduction in the benefit with regard to the provision of the vehicle, on the other hand, is ruled out.